Ipw2100

From ThinkWiki
Jump to: navigation, search

The Ipw2100 is the Linux driver for the Intel PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter found in Centrino laptops.

Packages

Status

  • Works, but not reliable in recent kernels up to 2.6.33. Random crashes of the firmware, see [1],[2].
  • In development but usable. Version 1.0.5 works quite well with kernel 2.6.10.
  • Works very well with kernel 2.6.16-9. Only firmware needs to be copied to the appropriate directory and everything works out-of-box.

Installation

Debian Sarge

# apt-get install ipw2100-source

# module-assistant -t build ipw2100-source

[is this how module-assistant works in Sarge?]

Debian Etch

The kernel includes a version but if you want a more recent version install the module ipw2100-modules-2.6-486 or ipw2100-modules-2.6-686 or ipw2100-modules-2.6-686-bigmem or ipw2100-modules-2.6-k7 or ipw2100-modules-2.6-amd64 depending on your architecture.

The firmware is not distributed with Debian due to licensing reasons, download the matching version 1.3 firmware and install it:

# tar -xvf ipw2100-fw-1.3.tgz -C /lib/firmware
# mv /lib/firmware/ipw2100-fw-1.3/* /lib/firmware

Debian Unstable

Install ieee80211-source:

# apt-get install ieee80211-source
# module-assistant -t build ieee80211-source

The kernel includes a version but if you want a more recent version install the module ipw2100-modules-2.6-486 or ipw2100-modules-2.6-686 or ipw2100-modules-2.6-686-bigmem or ipw2100-modules-2.6-k7 or ipw2100-modules-2.6-amd64 depending on your architecture.

The firmware is not distributed with Debian due to licensing reasons, download the matching version ?.? firmware and install it:

# tar -xvf ipw2100-fw-?.?.tgz -C /lib/firmware
# mv /lib/firmware/ipw2100-fw-?.?/* /lib/firmware

Additional Comments

Make sure to try the newest version. You will need to install the loadable binary firmware provided on http://ipw2100.sourceforge.net/firmware.php as required by the driver.

To install the firmware, decompress the .tgz in /lib/firmware

To turn off the radio on boot-up load ipw2100 with option disable=1, i.e. # modprobe ipw2100 disable=1.

External links